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Comment by The_DaveG | Hacker News Reader

I'm currently going down this route myself. I fill 6-10 notebooks a year and am wondering if there is a better way. For me it's specifically how can I take what I write and then make that editable text so I don't have to duplicate work.

My current test is an iPad Pro and Apple pencil with GoodNotes. It's not inexpensive and I didn't buy the tablet specifically for this reason, but it's a test.

It's good for some things: meetings notes, proposal work, things I need to send to other people.

It is not a replacement for pen and paper. For me I like fountain pens and paper. So I still have one or two notebooks that I'm using for daily schedule, etc.

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This has been my go to for about a year now. I have set up a couple templates that I use as blank pages. I keep four notebooks: one for each my day job, my side projects, house renovations and one for notes at conferences or when taking a course.

I used to carry at least two or three different note/sketchbooks and a small collection of pens. Now, just the iPad Pro and pencil.

Yeah, I'm still trying to do more on the iPad, and it's working well. At the end of the day, I really like the feeling of pen on paper, which is what it will keep me from fully going paperless.

Just curious. How often to you go back to old notes?

I typically set things up as projects. When I'm working on the projects, almost daily over to make sure I remember things correctly. I also make additional notes when I'm going through the project so I can have everything in one place. A lot of the time I may work on one thing, then it's a couple of weeks and I need to get back into it.

At some point, everything will get written into a digital scope of work document or deliverable. At that point, most things become superfluous and I don't look back into notes.

Every once in a while I'll want to remember a name or a book and I like being able to have those at the tip of my fingers. Those things are typically in a different notebook.

I take a lot of notes and honestly enjoy it.

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